Transparent ceramics (also known as “Transparent Aluminum”) include but are not limited to materials such as aluminum oxynitride. Aluminum oxynitride (or “AlON”) is a ceramic powder made of aluminum, oxygen, and nitrogen. In the visible spectrum, AlON is optically transparent. Additionally, AlON is one of the hardest and strongest polycrystalline transparent ceramics available today. The transparent nature of the ceramic, combined with its enormous strength makes it a desirable material for use in high-impact environments, such as in military and law enforcement applications. Specifically, AlON has been used in bulletproof and blast-resistant windows and in military infrared optics.
Because AlON is a ceramic powder, it can be fabricated in many different shapes, including but not limited to windows, plates, domes, rods, tubes, etc. using conventional ceramic powder processing techniques. This makes the material very attractive to many different industries beyond the military. Unfortunately, however, the material can be extremely costly to manufacture in large quantities, and the expansion into other industries has been slow.
As research continues to evolve, making the manufacture of AlON more cost effective, it may become increasingly implemented as a building material because of its many benefits. It would be advantageous for an AlON construction material (or composition) to be further configured for implementation into a controlled response system for reducing the effects of impacts on a surface comprising the AlON composition.